The month of January brings with it a range of feelings for many–– excitement and anxiety about the coming year, along with the grief of remembering all those who will not be entering the New Year with us. But January also provides us with an opportunity to stop, step back, and survey the terrain of the year––even the terrain of Time itself. To take stock and try to see the bigger picture: Where have I come from? Where am I going? Who am I going with? Who am I becoming? What is this all about? This is exactly what Moses does and invites us to do in Psalm 90.
Psalm 90 is a kind of time-capsule, a witness from a bygone era. It draws Israel and us back to their Exodus years of wilderness-wandering, exiled from the comforts of the Promised Land. One scholar defines exile as “being where we don’t want to be with people we don’t want to be with.” Israel was in exile: they had no land, no permanent place of worship, and no kingdom. But they did have a real, meaningful relationship with the LORD. They had no human king, no earthly home, and no physical temple: but the LORD was their King, the LORD was their Home, and the presence of the LORD was their Holy Place. He was their All in All. And in the midst of their rootlessness and longing, the Eternal God gave them a hope for the future. A future whose blessedness didn’t depend on the luxuries of land, king, and temple. They had found their True Home in the Living God. Moses writes:
“Lord, you have been our dwelling place
throughout all generations.
Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the whole world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (Ps. 90:1-2 NIV).
Maybe you currently feel like you’re “in exile”–somewhere you don’t want to be with people you don’t want to be with. As we go through the chaotic movements of our daily lives––moving from one Zoom meeting to the next, one group of friends to the next, one city or job, or hectic season of family life to the next––Moses gives us this prayer to pray. It’s a prayer to remind us that the personal presence of God is our only rest amid life’s rootlessness and frailty. It is a prayer which moves us to lament the losses of our past and present, even as it dares us to move forward in faith, finding our True Home in an eternal God. Like the North African church father, Augustine of Hippo, so beautifully prayed millennia ago: You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.
Moses’s prayer confronts the empty promises of consumer culture, which tries to convince us that everything is alright––or could be with the right purchase, the right romance, the right promotion, or exotic vacation. Instead, like a good friend, Moses calls us to acknowledge our deepest, most sacred longings: our hunger for what is “unshakeable” (Hebrews 12:27). He helps us remember how brief and beautiful life is so that in the midst of its joys and trials we might learn to “number our days” (Ps. 90:12), surrendering their outcomes, and finding our rest in the steadfast love of a forever God.
“Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,
that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
for as many years as we have seen trouble.
May your deeds be shown to your servants,
your splendor to their children.
May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us;
establish the work of our hands for us—
Yes, establish the work of our hands!” (Ps. 90:14-17).
If you would like to grow more mature and mighty in your prayer life, consider joining one of the 30th Anniversary Challenges such 30 Minute Prayer Call, 30 Minute Thursdays, or 30 Days of Rising Early.
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